West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that her government won’t allow the BJP-led Centre to tag its name with crop insurance for farmers in the state just by bearing only 20 per cent of the cost.
She accused the Centre of making false claims of providing crop insurance to farmers in West Bengal and said that it was the state government that bore 80 per cent of the insurance payout.
Banerjee, during an administrative meeting in Birbhum district said that from now on the state government would pay the entire amount and won’t allow the Centre to take credit by just bearing a minuscule 20 per cent of the cost.
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She also said that as of now 49 per cent of farmers in West Bengal are covered under crop insurance and the rest will be brought under its purview soon.
Banerjee had last week announced a number of schemes for the state’s 71.23 lakh farmers. Under the ‘Krishi Krishak Bandhu’ scheme, Rs 2 lakh will be paid to the next of kin of a farmer, aged between 18-60 years, in case of his death. The CM had also announced that a farmer would get Rs 5,000 as assistance for each acre of his land in a year for growing a single crop. Under the scheme, farmers will get Rs 2,500 twice a year for growing a single crop per acre.
She also asked the district administration to start preparing with different schemes and programmes to avoid difficulties for drought-prone areas, to sink deep tubewells and so on. She also asked the administration to take measures to fight dengue and malaria during the coming season so that if it strikes, it doesn’t catch them unawares.
